A not so quiet life

5/13

You'd stayed in that cabin for a few days, eating from what Daryl hunt for you and what Maggie and Glenn managed to scavenge, with only stray walkers roaming around not that frequently, until a small group showed up one night.

You'd been asleep when Maggie and Glenn gave the alarm and you jumped to your feet, trying not to panic but with your heart in your throat.

"We can overpower them," Rick was saying from the outside. "They're not that many and we can't leave this place. Come on, we can fight them."

Daryl nodded, already joining him, crossbow ready. You knew you were safer in that cabin than in the woods, protected from the cold and stray walkers, and if you left who knew when and where you might find another place like this, but the idea of fighting the monsters almost took your breath away.

You had with you the machete Maggie'd given you but you also took the rifle, you didn't feel confident in hand by hand fight.

"No shooting unless we can't help it," Rick reminded. "We'd only bring more to us."

You followed the others outside, besides Beth, Carl and Lori, your hands trembling, the walkers already on you. You saw how the others began sinking their knives into the monsters' heads but you felt frozen at the idea of having to get so close to them and grab them while they tried to bit you.

Daryl'd been shooting arrows at them but now that they were too close and he didn't have time to reload, he just hit one of them on the head with the crossbow until it dropped dead before dropping the crossbow in favor of his knife. It gave you an idea.

One of the walkers had gotten close to you, too close, so you gathered all your courage and grabbing the rifle hard, you hit the walker with it twice. It stumbled backward, face and head bleeding but still moving, though it slowed down enough for Carol to grab it more easily and sunk her knife into its brain.

"Teamwork." Carol winked at you.

Daryl had approached you and Carol, and he nodded in approval looking at you and the walker dead at your feet.

"You okay?" He asked you and you nodded, though you were pretty shaken. "And you?" He turned to Carol, who was sliding her knife off the walker's head.

"Yeah."

The threat had subsided but you still had to dispose of the bodies, taking them away from the cabin.

"Come here," Carol called for you once you were back in the cabin and when you approached she began washing off the blood that had spattered over you while you hit the walker. "See, you did well, all that of not being able to was nonsense."

"I just hit one with a rifle." You shrugged.

"You help me put a monster down, didn't you?"

"Yeah..."

"It's settled then," she pocked your nose before going to check on Lori.

You went to sit down on the stairs of the cabin, feeling too restless to be inside with the others, still shaken by the events of the day. You could see Rick a bit ahead, pacing as he kept watch around the perimeter. You heard the wood creak next to you and you jumped a bit, startled, hand on the sheat of your knife, but it was just Daryl.

"Now it's you who startles me." You joked darkly.

"Sorry."

"No, it's okay."

You thought he might go with Rick but he just stayed there in silence.

"You, erm, you did well today."